Abstract: Communities in social networks emerge from interactions among individuals and can be analyzed through a combination of clustering and graph layout algorithms. These approaches result in 2D or 3D visualizations of clustered graphs, with groups of vertices representing individuals that form a community. However, in many instances the vertices have attributes that divide individuals into distinct categories such as gender, profession, geographic location, and similar. It is often important to investigate what categories of individuals comprise each community and vice-versa, how the community structures associate the individuals from the same category. Currently, there are no effective methods for analyzing both the community structure and the category-based partitions of social graphs. We propose Group-In-a-Box (GIB), a metalayout for clustered graphs that enables multi-faceted analysis of networks. It uses the treemap space filling technique to display each graph cluster or category group within its own box, sized according to the number of vertices therein. GIB optimizes visualization of the network sub-graphs, providing a semantic substrate for category-based and cluster-based partitions of social graphs. We illustrate the application of GIB to multi-faceted analysis of real social networks and discuss desirable properties of GIB using synthetic datasets.

The #Occupywallstreet movement is growing and lots of activity is taking place in social media. Here is a map of the connections among the people who recently tweeted the term “#occupywallstreet” on 8 October 2011.

Over the course of the event a number of people tweeted using the hashtag #win2011.

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These are the connections among the Twitter users who recently tweeted the word win2011 when queried on October 3, 2011, scaled by numbers of followers (with outliers thresholded). Connections created when users reply, mention or follow one another.

These are the connections among the Twitter users who tweeted the word win2011 when queried a few days earlier on September 30, 2011, scaled by numbers of followers (with outliers thresholded). Connections created when users reply, mention or follow one another.

These are the connections among the Twitter users who recently tweeted the word wikisym when queried on October 5, 2011, scaled by numbers of followers (with outliers thresholded). Connections are created when users reply, mention or follow one another.

In contrast, a few days earlier, these are the connections among the Twitter users who recently tweeted the word wikisym when queried on October 3, 2011, scaled by numbers of followers (with outliers thresholded). Connections created when users reply, mention or follow one another.

This is a map of the connections among the Twitter users who recently tweeted the word HealthTap when queried on September 28, 2011, scaled by numbers of followers (with outliers thresholded). Connections created when users reply, mention or follow one another.

Look up from your phone and you will notice that offline is not obsolete. Experiences in real life (IRL) remain powerful and memorable. Online tools and social platforms are now thoroughly integrated into “offline” life on smart devices in every meeting, conference, or gathering. Marketers can now tie online and offline activity together, mapping online discussions and offline connections to spur awareness, connections, and lasting conversations. Featuring insight from the Social Media Research Foundation and case studies from some of the world’s top brands, this intermediate workshop will teach techniques for integrating social media and emerging technologies with events and experiential marketing campaigns. We’ll illustrate free and open tools for collecting, analyzing and visualizing patterns of how people engage with your topic using various social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare. We will review how to augment face-to-face interactions, and present case studies of interactive events that fit cohesively into established online and offline marketing campaigns. Maps of the connections that form when people communicate can reveal the key people and groups who act as your brand influencers. Learn how to make maps of your own, with no programming skills required, to guide your own engagement with stakeholders, online and off.

Questions
Answered

How can marketers leverage digital media to increase the value of experiential marketing? How can they create breadth and impact beyond the transaction?

What are the best new platforms and tools to leverage?

What was your favorite integrated campaign this year? Which brands did an excellent job of incorporating social media at events and weaving digital throughout?

What social media data can be collected at events and conferences? What can you do to better understand your customers through this information?

What are the best ways to compare online and offline metrics? Do we need new standards?

The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) is a nonprofit, educational association of journalism and mass communication educators, students and media professionals. The Association’s mission is to promote the highest possible standards for journalism and mass communication education, to cultivate the widest possible range of communication research, to encourage the implementation of a multi-cultural society in the classroom and curriculum, and to defend and maintain freedom of communication in an effort to achieve better professional practice and a better informed public.

Using NodeXL for Social Network Analysis
Tuesday — 2 pm to 5 pmPresented by Communication Theory and Methodology DivisionThis pre-conference workshop examines social network analysis. Social network analysis can be used to examine message boards, blogs, and friend networks (amongmany other phenomena). Participants will learn to use the NodeXL program to conduct a network analysis. For information, contact Michel M. Haigh, Pennsylvania State University at mmh25@psu.edu.

The Social Media Research Foundation displayed and printed Nextwork Networks maps of the connections among the people who tweeted about the conference, the speakers, and their companies.

Visit the NextWork Network booth hosted by the Social Media Research Foundation to see a map of the connections among people who tweeted the term “NextWork“. Networks are important data structures but the tools to access, analyze and visualize networks have been hard to use. New tools now make networks as easy to handle as making a pie chart. NodeXL, the free and open network overview, discovery and exploration add-in for the familiar Excel spreadsheet, makes creating network diagrams and gaining insights much simpler (see: http://nodexl.codeplex.com). Using NodeXL, we have been collecting all the tweets that mention the NextWork event and building a network map of the ways those people connect to one another. Not everyone is equally connected: some people occupy more strategic locations in the web of connections than others. Find out who: request your own NodeXL social media network map for your Twitter account or the name of your company or brand (or your competitors) by dropping by the booth (or visit: http://www.smrfoundation.org/nextwork2011).

Here is an example, a map of the connections among the people who recently tweeted the name “Kevin Kelly”, one of the speakers at the event:

This is a map of the connections among the people who tweeted the term “Nextwork”: